JUST THE TIME TO CUT GRASS. 47 



that in the beet. The first year, all a beet does is to make the 

 great reservoir, which we call the beet root, for supplying 

 material for the seed the next year. But in the case of the 

 grasses, the first thing for the grass to do is to elaborate the 

 sugar, the starch, and the various materials for the perfection 

 of the seed, and if we allow the grass to go to seed, all this 

 material goes into the seed ; and if we allow it to stand too 

 long, the seed drops, and all or a great portion of the value of 

 the grass is gone. Just as the blossom comes out, just as the 

 seed begins to form, it seems to me is the time when the 

 nutritive material which the plant furnishes is mainly in the 

 plant, and is best distributed in the plant. That is my own 

 opinion. I should like to hear the opinion of other gentlemen 

 on that point. 



Mr. Buppinton. .Ten or fifteen years ago, before I com- 

 menced farming, I went over to see Col. Thompson, of New 

 Bedford, who is my great authority as to the time for cutting 

 hay. I went into his fields, and I said, " Colonel, how is it that 

 you are able to mow your hay in the morning and get it into 

 the barn in the afternoon, and have it just as nice and sweet as 

 any hay ? " He said, " I will tell you how. When I have 

 a field that looks almost ripe, and that is green, I mow that." 

 I said, " That is not what I want. I want to know how I shall 

 be able to tell when to mow this piece and that." " That is 

 easy enough to know," said he ; and he went into the field and 

 pulled up a spear of grass, squeezed it between his thumb and 

 finger, and some greenish water came out. Then he pulled up 

 another spear, squeezed it, and there came out a white, milky 

 substance, and he said, " When your grass is in that condition, 

 it is time to cut it." I want to know whether that theory is 

 right. I have followed that rule. 



Mr. Johnson. When I said that herdsgrass, redtop and 

 clover, should be cut by the twelfth of July, I did not intend 

 to be understood as fixing that as the precise date ; but I do 

 mean to be understood, that, in my opinion, no herdsgrass or 

 redtop grown in the eastern part of Massachusetts, or say as far 

 west of Framingham as twenty miles above Worcester, and as 

 far east as Newton, should ever stand later than the eighth of 

 July. I put it at the twelfth, because some seasons, as the pro- 

 fessor has said, grass ripens a little earlier and sometimes a little 



